FLASHBACK Friday...(one year ago)

(This was NOT the new uniform that they bought the year before...the one that I matching when I order NATALIE'S NEW CHEER SUIT.)

A year ago today, I found myself embracing all of Cari's lasts. This photo is an image of her and all the seniors at her last Jamboree of high school football. Weren't the girls all so beautiful? Now she's enrolled in college. This weekend will be filled with RUSH not high school football. WOW! Isn't it amazing how things change so fast and things are so different a year later. I am still proud of this beautiful child of mine and her beautiful friends too.

Happy Birthday to you: Randy, Hunny, Dad, Poppa and FLASHBACK FRIDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Almost 5 years ago, this guy, my hunny, my children's dad, Natalie's Poppa, prided himself in bragging to me that he was the first person ( and other than nurses, doctors, etc.) that was not her parents. He went over early the next a.m. after she was born and took breakfast to her parents.

Today, July 24th, is his birthday. I won't list his age either, but I will say he is two days younger than me. We were even born in the same hospital and were there at the same time (for at least a day). I am not going to do a long post about how much I (we) love this guy. I did that a while back. Click HERE if you missed it. And click HERE to view the blog post that I mentioned in the last post about how us moms aka photographers of our families should have photo taken of ourselves. I found it and want to pass it along. It really made me think!

SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RANDY!

WE ALL LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!

~~ja~~

FLASHBACK FRIDAY (posting a few hours early)

Since Cari recently returned from cheer camp (aka bootcamp), I thought this image from three years ago would be perfect for FLASHBACK FRIDAY (which begins in less than fours hours from the time I am posting this). Cari and Katie will soon begin their junior year of high school at VHS. Katie is on the drill team and Cari a cheerleader for the Vikings. Three years make a huge difference. These girls have grown and changed so much!

~~ja~~

Flashback Friday...

SUMMER

2004

This is Cameron from the Summer of 2004. This was his last season to play "regular" summer ball. He played tournament ball later.

The photo is a little dark as it was getting dark. I have acquired better equipment since then, but dark is dark and you can only get so much light on an image when it is.

This is definitely a flashback image. This was pre-Natalie. It is so hard to remember our lives without her. It seems she has always been a part of our family, but it definitely seems like summer ball has always been a part of our lives. Randy helped coach a league when Cameron was just an infant. He skipped a few years until Cameron was old enough to play. He was just away from us so much. It is very time consuming.

Cameron was just over 4 years old when he started playing. Cari could not remember a summer that she wasn't hanging out at the ball park while her brother played ball. It was often so tiring. We spent too much money at the concession stand. Gained weight too much weight eating nachos and anything fast food after the games to avoid cooking. Sometimes it all seemed never ending, but it ended and it was soooo sad to see a chapter in our lives close. So as much as we got tired of it all, we miss it just as much these days! Funny, isn't that the way life is.

~~ja~~